Why Mobility Matters

 

Motorist behavior plus city policy determine our traffic mobility plan. For 2024 what is the plan Laguna?

-LS

eBike Adoption by Older Riders

As a population ages, individuals face phys­ical constraints and health issues that restrict their ability to travel. Limited mobility poses challenges to maintaining a residence in one’s own home or neighborhood often resulting in an undesired relocation to assisted communities.  Unfortunately, these limitations can lead to secondary health issues, and marginalization within society.

eBikes are exploding in popularity among younger riders around Laguna yet face barriers to adoption by city policy makers, older riders and riders with varying (dis)abilities. Given the variety of topography inaccessible by bicycles and the gentrification of its residents (median age 50) unable to master a bicycle, ebikes are the enabler in Laguna Beach. 

eBikes also meet target criteria set in the Laguna Beach General Plan:

• preserve a small scale village community
• reduce traffic congestion from a car-centric mobility policy
• remove the need for parking, expensive structures and enforcement
• Meets GHG emission reduction goals
• Consistent with National DOT strategy for street accessibility.

The body of research knowledge on eBikes continues to grow but the lack of research on marginalized groups like older riders, persists. In a new study at Texas A&M and The Unversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign funded by the US Department of Transportation studied eBikes for these marginalized groups to achieve greater eBike adoption in our mobility plan. The study aimed to fill this knowledge gap and help realize the potential of eBikes for all users. From the study:

The findings suggested that disabilities and advanced age negatively affected the way people perceive e-bikes. Conversely, positive perceptions were shaped by various factors including e-bike experience, personal cycling history, and openness to innovative technology.

Significant concerns about e-bikes included safety, security, social stigma imposed on electric assistance, and loss of disability benefits. Along with these concerns, lack of knowledge, misperceptions, limited access, high purchase costs, and inadequate infrastructure were identified as major deterrents to adopting e-bikes. 

The same findings ring true for adoption Complete Street Policy; highlighting the need for programs, policies, and public education to promote the acceptance of e-bikes as mobility aids. The study directs further research to prioritize older adults and those with challenged abilities who lack eBike experience. The study recommends exploring the perceptions of key community stakeholders whose perspectives directly influence the wider adoption of e-bikes, including mobility planners, health pro­fessionals, families and caregivers.

-LS

The MUTCD Gets a Makeover

After 14-year delay, neglect, and a surge in pedestrian deaths, the nation's highway and road building manual got a make-over and was published yesterday Tuesday 12/19.

 What is a MUTCD?   The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices is a guide for road building across the US, it is a recipe book for making our roads and traffic control on those roads uniform and consistent across the United States. It sets down the standards for design of street signage, markings to make driving as uniform and familiar as possible whether a motorist is in New York City, Los Angeles or Laguna Beach.    

So What?  Given the change in vehicle types, micromobility vehicles, electric cars bikes and autonomous cars the nation's highway and road building manual got a make-over to set a new standard for accommodating different types of vehicles on our roadways.

For more details see Bloomberg CityLab here

-LS

The CalBike Resident Survey on CALTRANS

The short answer by the numbers:

• 83% Feel Uncomfortable/Very Uncomfortable walking/biking on Caltrans streets
• 99% Would be Uncomfortable with a child walking/biking on Caltrans streets 
• 99.86% Would be likely to walk or bike if Caltrans implements Complete Streets components

Many of California's major roadways are CALTRANS highways, operated and maintained by under CALTRANS jurisdiction, two of them trisect Laguna Beach and dominate where the majority of injuries and fatalities in Laguna occur. This fall the California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) surveyed Californians how comfortable they felt on Caltrans-controled highways that like Laguna, serve as surface streets and roads (Stroads) in local neighborhoods around the state. The survey confirmed that Californians are desperate for solutions to CALTRANS road safety; a majority of respondents felt uncomfortable walking or biking on CALTRANS Stroads, and nearly unanimous that the roadways are hazardous for children even with supervision.

CalBike is reviewing how well CALTRANS implements its own mandate for Complete Streets Policy (DD-64) and whether it meets the needs of people who travel by walking, biking, or using transit. The survey strives to bring meaningful change to a state agency focused too long on moving cars and trucks while neglecting active transportation.

Each year 4000 Californians die statewide from traffic violence, one quarter of those are pedestrians (Calbike). The California Office of Traffic Safety collects traffic collision data from various sources including the CHP, the most recent collision data shows how Laguna Beach ranks among 103 similar California cities. 

LATEST UPDATE: 2020 CRASH RANKINGS FOR LAGUNA BEACH
   Pedestrians : 14
   Bicyclists : 8
   Motorcycles : 2
   Alcohol involved : 2
   Speed involved: 1.

CalBike conducted the survey to understand how Californian's viewed road safety on CALTRANS nearby roads, and whether they would view the roads differently if CALTRANS adopted and installed Complete Streets safety measures on those roads. 

"The Caltrans’ historic failure to consider the needs of active transportation when building or maintaining roadways has built barriers that prevent communities from creating the connected, protected bikeways and walking routes their residents need to replace car trips with bicycling or walking. And it often fails to respond to safety concerns, even after deaths and injuries of people biking and walking."

The survey asked respondents how comfortable they were with the nearby Caltrans route and assign a score from 1 to 4, where '1' is most comfortable and '4' least comfortable. The scores were assigned to a color map by Caltrans highway route and by County. The average score for road safety was 3.28 or 'somewhat uncomfortable'. The results colorized on a map surrounding Laguna Beach look like this.

The survey then asked how likely respondents would feel if CALTRANS adopted and implemented their complete street changes to their highway, on a scale of '1' to '3' the average score is 2.67 or 'very likely'. For a nifty user-friendly zoom map of results for the entire state of California, see the complete results at Felt.

From the CalBike report:

"Our user survey clearly shows that Caltrans is doing too little and moving too slowly to build Complete Streets infrastructure on its State Highway System. CalBike will continue to hold the agency to account and push for more funding for Complete Streets and prioritization of active transportation at the state level."

-LS

Oil & Gas Production Gap from WEF

The charts show the gap between the amount of coal, oil and gas global production planned by industry and governments (in red), and the amounts required to meet climate target constraints (World Economic Forum comprehensive report).

 

 "More than double the amount of fossil fuels could be produced in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting global temperature rises to 1.5°C".   This is the key finding of UN Oil and Gas Production report (United Nations Environment Program UNEP Production Gap Report 2023). It says world governments planned production of oil and gas is more that double the amount consistent with holding global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Centegrade.

 The WEF adds “To retain any chance of limiting global warming below 1.5°C by the end of this century, global emissions must decrease by 7% annually until 2030" in its State of Climate Action report. However, emissions are currently rising by 1.5% a year. 

The Fossil Fuel industry makes up 80% of the worlds total energy production. 

What is Oil and Gas production worth?  Ans: $3500 Billion of which 50% goes to governments and 10% to shareholders. 

What is Clean energy production worth? Ans: $1800 Billion 

What is the Oil and Gas contribution to clean energy production? Ans: 1%

On top of this, the world is perilously close to using up its carbon budget - the amount of carbon fuels we can emit without without breaching 1.5°C temperature rises – says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“This leaves no room for new coal mines, oil and gas fields, or fossil-fuel-burning power plants, unless existing infrastructure is retired early,” UNEP adds in its report. What can be done to meet targets in the net-zero transition? For a comparison between cutting-out and phasing-out fossil fuel see the International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Summary "Oil and Gas Industry in Net Zero Transitions."

 Given this international framework to meet Climate goals the LB Environmental Sustainability Committee (ESC) remains consistent with the GHG reduction in the Laguna Beach General Plan, but what is on the agenda of city leadership in Laguna Beach? 

• The City Council voted unanimously to develop 9-parking structures for cars ;
• The City is combating balloons and single-use shopping bags;
• The City is rescuing gum-trees.

To meet climate targets in 2030 and 2050 the City of Laguna Beach like world governments remains  challenged. 

-LS

110 Freeway Closed to Cars Today

What-if, nobody walks in LA?   

What people said:

"Is this LA"?

"Feels like a Dream"

"When's the next one going to happen"?

"I heard birds chirping, bike bells ringing, kids squealing with laughter."

This was ArroyoFest (LA DOT Hosted) a free event ... six miles of the historic parkway was closed to cars from 7 a.m. to about 11 a.m.

The word got out today, Twitter (X) post:

Credit: LA DOT and Thank you.

-LS

 

Viola Brand

 Think you can ride a bike?

-LS

Zoning Laws are a Choice

"The most safe, walkable neighborhoods are often the most expensive to live in. Why? Because demand is high, but supply is low. Local zoning laws restrict housing development within these places, and simultaneously prevent other places from becoming more like them. "   -Strong Towns

Photo: Re-thinking The Future dot com

That's right, Laguna would rather covet an empty 1932 Sewer Digester and rusting tool-sheds than build a sense of PLACE for community space and multi-use affordable housing.  When will Laguna abandon symbolic, historical metaphorical elements and return to fulfill basic resident and visitor needs, like the Promenade did?

-LS

Why Car-Centric Suburbia Needs Subsidy

When does urban density subsidize car-centric suburbia? When you do the math, mixed-use walkable downtown places outperform car-centric suburbia financially every single time.

In these studies older poorer neighborhoods subsidize newer car-centric suburbanites typically nation wide. Then why does Laguna Beach plan to build 9 spanking new parking structures with the illusion of new city revenue? Density is destiny, unless bankruptcy is your game.

-LS

Cyclist Fatality Glenneyre and Oak Street 7 October 2023

 RIP

Photo Credit LA Tmes.

Photo Credit Nixle Alerts

This is a 4-way stop, the mountain bike is mangled and the preliminary accident investigation reveals:

"one of the parties might not have stopped completely."

Just think about that a while. 

 https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/losangeles/news/bicyclist-killed-small-terrier-injured-in-laguna-beach-crash/

-LS

 

San Diego Plans for Walkable Communities

Fueled by faster, riskier drivers, bigger vehicles and less police enforcement of traffic laws, pedestrian deaths nationwide rose 77 percent to 7,624 deaths from 2010 to 2021, according to federal data. -NYT

In 2013 Phase 4 of San Diego's Pedestrian Master Plan was completed, now a push to include walkable infrastructure ensures the "best possible planning of walkable communities" for new and existing developments. The emphasis seeks to make the city more walkable.

As examples, the 5th Avenue Slow Street and the Normal Street Promenade should be replicated in other parts of the city. Streetscape elements such as street trees, trash cans, bicycle racks, park benches, public bathrooms are anticipated as part of the updated plans to make walking a more enjoyable experience.  

The plans are endorsed by San Diego City CouncilmemberRaul Campillo (@CMRaulCampillo on Twitter)  who proposed funding for pedestrian promenades like the Gaslamp Quarter and the upcoming Normal Street Promenade to be replicated in other parts of the City.  

In 2008 the Laguna Beach Complete Streets Task Force proposed, wrote and delivered a Pedestrian and Bicycle Masterplan to the LB City Council, no action was taken to adopt, approve or read the submitted master plan. At present the city of Laguna Beach produced a PARKING Master Plan but no Bicycle/Pedestrian Master Plan and no Councilmember to endorse one.

-LS

Preemption of Minimum Parking Requirements

A new federal law HR. 3145 introduced to the 23-24 Congress would preempt State and Local laws that require minimum parking requirements. The Bill named "People over Parking" will remove minimum parking requirements for both new developments and reconstructed or rehabilitated residential and retail construction.  Intent of the law:  

SEC. 2. Preemption of State and local laws requiring the provision of parking spots for new developments.

(a) Authority regarding provision of parking spots.—In the case of a newly constructed or substantially reconstructed or rehabilitated residential, retail, commercial, or industrial structure in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce that is located not more than 0.5 miles from the closest covered public transit point, or a project for such new construction or substantial reconstruction or rehabilitation that has been permitted or otherwise authorized by the appropriate agency of local government to be undertaken, the owner of such structure or project shall have the sole discretion to determine how many automobile parking spots to provide in connection with such structure.

 The intent of this bill is a measure to address climatic changes, GHG emissions and consistent with the Laguna Beach General Plan and Vision 2030 Strategies. Given the cost of added spaces for building nine parking structures at $182,000 per space is a welcome relief from the burden on residents, commercial development and visitors. 

It's time to think different about Laguna mobility and car parking, this legislation is timely relief from 1950 planning and essential for climate goals. 

-LS

Why We Cycle

The benefits from teaching cycling:

 

•  Health and Happiness
• Awareness
• Independence
• Responsibility
• We believe in you and trust you
  

"Cycling is a good metaphor for education."

-LS 

Alameda Elementary Bike-Bus

What is way more fun than a school bus

way more fun than Mom's van........

Another successful Portland bike-bus teaches students the fun of Active Transportation. 

Listen to the fun!

 

-LS

Parking Lot Logic

 

Credit: Car Toons Stock www.cartoonstock.com

Lawsuits deliver for youth, will Laguna Beach?

The Climate Protection Action Plan (CPAP) written in 2008 gave greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets as 7% reduction below 1990 levels no later than 2012 (page v). Laguna Beach baseline emissions are reported on page 7 and reduction targets in Table 3 Appendix C.

Under Policies rhe Laguna Beach General Plan Circulation Element reads "Continue to investigate new techniques which promote the balancing of principles that roads are not just for cars; that residents have a right to the best quality of life, which includes the least noise possible, the least pollution  possible, the safest environment possible and an  environment which fosters a rich community life."  

The Laguna Beach Parking Transportation and Circulation  Committee recommends improving circulation in the city: "Our present trends  toward the excessive use of the automobile must be reversed and the automobile must  begin to be supplemented by more efficient and attractive transportation and circulation  system."   

The Forest Promenade as conceived meets the CPAP emissions target goals and General Plan policy, the 9-parking structures costing minimum $326 million do not.    

COMPLETE STREETS POLICY is consistent with all three recommendations above. Recent legal case law shows the oversight bodies are ruling in favor of GHG reductions. In a recent decision in Montana the court ruled in favor of youth plaintiffs challenging State's failure to recognize GHG's and climate change. From the case:

Based on its findings of fact, the court ruled that the youth plaintiffs have proven injury “resulting from the State’s failure to consider GHGs and climate change, including injuries to their physical and mental health, homes and property, recreational, spiritual, and aesthetic interests, tribal and cultural traditions, economic security, and happiness.”

A key dispute from the case was whether Montana's small fraction of global emissions contributed enough to matter, the state argued cutting Montana's emissions were unimportant. The court definitively rejected the state's claim acknowledging every bit of GHG emission mattered affecting reductions.

 “Every additional ton of GHG emissions exacerbates Plaintiffs’ injuries and risks locking in irreversible climate injuries.” These injuries “will grow increasingly severe and irreversible without science-based actions to address climate change.” 

This finding is vitally important— eviscerating the argument of any country, state, corporation or city actor that their portion of emissions is too small.

Recent case law shows similar judgements to the Montana case:

Dismissal to GHG reduction target 50%  EmpowerNJ vs Department of Environmental Protection

Youth vs State over due process rights Natalie vs State of Utah

Challenge to the City of San Diego's 2022 Climate Action Plan for allegedly failing to include mechanisms to ensure that its objectives would be achieved.  Climate Action Campaign vs City of San Diego

 "On the strongly positive side, however, the clear acceptance of the facts of climate change and the strength of climate science will make future attempts in court cases to dismiss climate science untenable."  -Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

-LS

Irvine Council Bike Ride Invite Sat. 8/5/2023

Sustainable Saturday Bike Ride

Ya'll come, see ya there.

Click for Details

-LS

Laguna Beach Vision 2030 Strategic Plan

The Vision 2030 Strategic Plan begun in 1999 begins this way:

What will Laguna Beach be like a generation from now? In thirty years will we congratulate ourselves on what we have achieved or lament on what we have lost?

The Vision 2030 Strategic Plan defined what our community identified as our greatest assets, opportunities and challenges. In contributions from seven strategy teams a  substantial consensus emerged around which were our greatest issues, and a framework of Goals and Actions for addressing them.

The reason for doing so was obvious in 1999 as now: 

"If you don't know where you're going, you might end-up somewhere else."

It's almost 2030, what has been done?  What remains to be implemented?  What are the new issues since 1999?  Do we know where we are going (read chart)?  

The original Vision 2030 Strategic Plan printed in 2001 has been lost, only a poor scanned copy of the original remains on the LB City website. The site www.visionlaguna.org has expired. What should be done to restore this guiding testament to LB resident values?

The plan has been updated for relevancy in 2023, rewritten in digital (pdf) format, searchable and answers those questions.

Laguna Beach Vision 2030 Strategic Plan REVISED

On 23 April 2023 this REVISED Plan was submitted to the LB City Council, the Planning Commission, and to select residents for comment, to date none were received. 

-LS

Minimum Parking Requirements are BULLSHIT

 Why Laguna's parking structures are a boot on our necks.

-LS

Electric Car-Share for Laguna Beach

The motive for public transit has been known for a while: vehicles specifically cars, just sit around Laguna most of the day and require public or private parking space.  Our Laguna Beach Transit Director Paula Pfaust (retired) tells us the LB Trolley costs $16 per boarding, while the LB Transit Department is planning to buy a new fleet of electric LB Trolleys for $250,000 each. When a transit boarding is FREE, these costs are subsidized by city resources, often state and federal grant funding and municipal bonds. And now due to low ridership some Trolleys no longer serve residential routes.  

Meanwhile electric mini car-shares are catching-on  in the United States and Europe costing little as 29-cents per minute plus a small membership fee.  Maybe electric mini car-shares are a solution for on-demand convenience, low Trolley ridership, and high fleet deployment costs. Car-shares are the perfect amenity for affordable housing in Laguna Beach, after all driving an EV Mini or scooter would be a lot more fun than riding a bus.  Here is what makes these mini car-shares attractive. 

Photos: GOOGLE Images

ITALY: Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence and Rome /  ENJOY by YoYo

"The vehicles have no fixed parking spaces or stations but can be parked anywhere in the city. The provider charges the vehicle itself and promises that the vehicles always have a battery level of at least 30 per cent."   That's the plan from Enjoy, but would it work for independent Gen-Z Americans?  In car-addicted Laguna Beach? Booking the small electric cars costs 29-cents a minute, plus a 1-euro start-up fee. Enjoy has deployed more than 3,000 shared vehicles.

GREECE: Greek island of Astypalea / Volkswagen ID.3, ID.4 , ASTYBUS, ASTYGO

Volkswagen Group and the Greek government agreed to establish a “pioneering mobility system” introducing shared electric mobility and rental services with e-bikes, scooters, and electric cars. In the next step, all commercial vehicles and official cars, such as police, ambulances and public sector vehicles, were also to be electrified. The Astybus system serves small localized communities with micro-fleets of 5 busses with a subscription model. Volkswagen plans to install 'Elli wall box chargers' throughout the island.

SPAIN: Barcelona /  e-Up, SEAT Mó eScooter

After launching its mobility brand Mó in June, Seat is getting its scooters on the road. A fleet of 632 electric scooters is ready for action in Barcelona. Users may jump on via a Smartphone App that follows a subscription model.

The Spanish Volkswagen subsidiary launched Seat Mó in June this year but plans to enter the urban mobility segment . The smallest eKickscooter-25 costs 15 euros per week or 40 euros per month, a eKickscooter-65 is 25 euros per week or 75 euros per month. Short-term Mó rentals is 0,26€/minute when in use, and 0,09€/minute when in Pause mode. The system also allows pay-per-ride. Two models for Seat will run under the Mó label as Seat Mó eScooter-125 and Seat Mó kick scooter-65. Described as “equivalent to 125cc output”, and also the scooter range in kilometers. A pouch at the handlebar allows for navigation using your smartphone.

Mo on SEAT Mó

The brand states Low Emission Zone (LEC) in Barcelona at the beginning of the year had also played a role in the mini-car offering . Seat Mó says  “We are now focusing on launching and establishing the service in Barcelona. Our city will be our playground for new mobility solutions before we scale them up for the rest of the world.”

GERMANY: Berlin, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and Potsdam / MILES, WESHARE

In autumn this year, two new locations were added: Brussels Belgium and  and Ghent in the Netherlands. The MILES fleet currently consists of over 9,000 vehicles – around 70 per cent of which come from the Volkswagen Group.

WESHARE

WeShare, operates around 2,000 Volkswagen ID.3 and ID.4 at its Berlin and Hamburg locations, with a total of more than 200,000 users.

“New mobility services such as car subscription models and car sharing are enjoying strong demand,” says Dr Christian Dahlheim, Chairman of the Board of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, holding responsibility for the Volkswagen Group’s core activities in the field of mobility solutions. “This is a trend in which we would like to participate more.” Dahlheim said that carsharing is to become available to an even broader spectrum of customers with a “strong partner to operate the fleet” and with vehicles from various Volkswagen Group brands.

"The acquisition represents yet another German carmaker parting with its carsharing business. BMW and Mercedes-Benz already sold their joint car-sharing business Share Now to the Stellantis mobility subsidiary Free2Move in the summer. Renault has made turned extra focus to car-sharing services and has made this a strong target in part of its Mobilize offering."

 

ITALY: Turin / XEV Yoyo

3D-Printed YoYo

The small 3D-printed electric car model Yoyo from the Italian start-up XEV is now in car-sharing use. Enjoy, Eni’s car-sharing service, is deploying 100 examples of the XEV Yoyo in Turin. 

The urban mobility vehicle is a two-seater that is 2.53 metres short and weighs only 450 kilograms (990 pounds without battery). The finished Yoyo range is up to 150 kilometres (93 miles).

These new cars  occupy minimal city space and energy, The car-sharing offers customers the convenience of ‘free floating’ car sharing that allows rentals to begin and end anywhere within Enjoy’s coverage area.

USA: New Jersey / ENVOY, BLINK

Envoy developed a car sharing platform and mobile app that provides electric vehicles as an amenity to apartments, office buildings and hotels. Envoy offers technology to reserve and access vehicles and provide maintenance services, chargers, the fleet and analytics. Blink combined existing EV carsharing service with Envoy’s fleet to develop an electric carsharing program in New Jersey.

 

BLINK

 In the USA, Blink Mobility announced the expansion of its BlueLA electric car-sharing program serving Los Angeles with 300 street side EV charging stations and an increase the car-sharing EV fleet. A Los Angeles City Council vote approved Blink to add 300 street side EV charging stations at an anticipated 60 destinations across the city. An expansion agreement called BlueLA will deploy 500 EV charging stations at 100 locations across LA and include 300 vehicles- based on utilization rates.

GERMANY & USA:  SION EV

The new Sion electric vehicle can be shared with friends, relatives or neighbours via the Sono App – when the Sion is launched in 2023. The Sion business model is revealed in the founder's statement:  “Our goal is to become the largest car-sharing platform without owning a single vehicle,” says Laurin Hahn, CEO and co-founder of Sono Motors.

DALMER AND BMW Share Now

Car-sharing provider Share Now has provided insights into statistics on the use of electric vehicles in its European car-sharing fleet. The company now operates 2,900 BMW, Mini, Smart and Fiat electric cars at four all-electric and four partially electric locations.

What is new is the fact that, since the first electric vehicles were floated in 2011, Drive Now customers across Europe have driven 200 million kilometers purely on electric power, about 5,000 circumnavigations of the globe. ( for detail see https://www.electrive.com/tag/car-sharing/)

-LS

Parking Structures Projects G-Q Total Cost

The June 13 2023 Parking and Transportation Demand Management Plan addresses nine parking structures G-O (Table 2 page 67), the Present Value of all parking structures current and previously proposed are Projects G thru Q shown in this chart. The total cost of all the projects is $326,000,000 for roughly  1700 added spaces, that's $192,000 per added space. What logic suggests parking a visitor Toyota in a $192,000 space?

 

The costs in these estimates include:

• Construction Costs
• Land Cost (were applicable)
  
• Opportunity Costs
• In-Lieu Fees
  
• Debt Service
• Operation and Maintenance
• Demolition and Salvage
  

The costs NOT included in these estimates are:

• Bond Premiums
• Soil Remediation
• Parking Enforcement,  
• Environment (quakes, floods)
• Depreciation
• Inflation and Taxes

Given Laguna residents are already obligated for $500 Million in debt for  undergrounding power utilities, all these projects are due approval by public vote.                        

  Let Laguna VOTE!

-LS 

Laguna's Cycle Tavern

How would it be?

Just in time for 

• Fete de la Musique
  
• Festival of Arts
• Fourth of July
• Anytime 
  

 -LS

Parking Meter Rates at Eleven Parking Structures II

The 13 June 2023 LB Agenda contains the Parking and Transportation Demand Management Report prepared by the Parking Master Plan Subcommittee calling for  embellishing eighteen parking lots and constructing nine new parking structures. Table-2 of this report gives a summary labeled Projects G-O, their street locations in Laguna Beach, the number of parking spaces added and the capital cost of construction. Assuming 30-year financing and 40-year life the charts below shows the minimum hourly parking rate necessary to breakeven with the amortized costs over the 40-year structure life.  

 

The first chart includes land and opportunity costs (if any) per parking space added.  The second chart excludes land and opportunity costs for all spaces provided. In this way the charts bound the possible outcomes from the highest meter rate to the lowest, for each project.

The analysis considers costs of construction, debt service, land costs, opportunity costs, demolition, salvage, in-lieu parking fees, maintenance and other costs in the amortization over the structure lifetime. Not included: bond financing premiums, parking enforcement, soil remediation, environment factors (quakes, floods), depreciation, inflation and taxes (if applicable). These results are preliminary and may be updated as project information is made available. Project I is the Village Entrance 3-story structure.

 -LS

Forest Children with Chalk

Campaign NYC 25x25 comes from Transportation Alternatives where planners were bold enough to imagine what it would look like to remove one-quarter of the city's automobile occupancy and return it to people by 2025. Not utopian just what is happening in Oslo and Paris right now (full SLATE article).

Removing one-quarter of NYC's 19,000 miles of driving lanes and 3-million free parking spaces, New York City could:  

•  give pedestrians access to 1,000 miles of streets
•  car-free block for play, outdoor learning, pickup/drop at 1,700 public schools.
•  put every resident within a five-minute walk of 500 miles of bus lanes, 
•  500 miles of (real, car-protected) bike lanes
•  lease 5.4 million square feet of street space to businesses and nonprofits
• put public bike parking on every block.
• plant 15,000 new trees, the equivalent of adding almost Central Park
• establish hubs for street vendors, benches, trees, public bathrooms, 
• bike charging, and bike parking outside every subway station,
• raise billions for transit by metering public parking spaces.  

 

-LS

Council Approves Parking Management Report

In a well attended session Tuesday June 13 the Laguna Beach City Council adopted (Video 4:28) all Recommendations from city staff with modifications to the Parking and Transportation Demand Management Report (PTDMR). Recommendation #6 removes the Presbyterian church parking structure. These are highlights of those Recommendations approved by Council in a 5/0 vote.

(1) Review and accept the final Parking and Transportation Demand Management Report;

(2) Direct staff to proceed with the implementation of all short-term TDM (reuse) strategies and updates to the City’s parking regulations;

(3) Direct staff to continue the evaluation of medium-term TDM strategies;

(6) Direct staff to proceed with the next steps for a 3-level 327-space parking structure at 635 Laguna Canyon Road/Farmers Market, 200 added spaces costing $81,343 per added space. Target users are downtown business employees, attendees and volunteers of Playhouse and Festival of Arts;

(8) Direct staff to study the feasibility of remote parking at Act V, 3-level 516-space parking structure at 1900 Laguna Canyon Road, 263 added spaces costing $98,099 per space. Target users are City's fleet of vehicles and trolleys, the general public primarily during summer;
 
(10) Direct staff to review the Complete Streets Mobility Study for "other" potential strategies. 

 

NOTES:  Since the Council unanimously carried a "motion to adopt", all PTDMR parking lots and parking structure projects remain in consideration.  The 13 June Agenda Item #14 and staff report make no clarification to "complete streets" in 226-pages, no commitment for funding or qualifications are addressed. Recommendation #10 remains most vague, we have been played again.

 -LS

LB Parking Demand Studies

There are three consultant reports about LB parking capacity and occupancy (the supply and spaces occupied), and solutions for better parking utilization. One consultant study shows us our parking occupancy is filled to 85% capacity but only 5% of the time. Another consultant study shows us downtown off-street parking occupancy is filled 80-100% in summer only, in winter it is 30-60%.  

Now a third consultant retained by LB City disputes these claims in a Parking and Transportation Demand Management Report (Jan 10 2023)* prepared by the Parking Management Subcommittee. The Subcommittee reports high parking occupancy all the time and recommends 11 new parking structures in 18 new parking lots from 23 locations studied.    

"New construction public parking infrastructure is generally a long-term strategy.  However, the Subcommittee also recommends that two significant infrastructure  projects (new multi-level parking structures) be pursued in the medium-term."  

The consultants and their reporting are:

IBI Group:  Existing Parking Analysis & Recommendations for the Downtown Specific Plan Area, Mar 2017

RBF Consultants: Downtown and Laguna Canyon Parking Management Plan (PMP) 2013 

City Council Parking Master Plan Subcommittee: LB Parking and Transportation Demand Management Report (Fehr & Peers Consultants), Jan 2023

 

IBI Group

Quoting from the study “Based on these observed occupancies and the current public and private parking supply, which was further analyzed according to the area’s land uses, the study resulted in three key findings.”

“Key Finding #1: The City can benefit from reducing the minimum required parking requirements for non-residential uses in the DSP area. The overall actual built supply of parking spaces exceeds overall actual demand.”
“Key Finding #2: Private parking spaces are underutilized. Parking demand in the Downtown Specific Plan area is higher in public parking spaces than in private parking spaces during both summer and non-summer months.”
“Key Finding #3: The Downtown Specific Plan area attracts more visitors during the summer season.”

RBF Consultants

The Consultants summarize the parking occupancy of the downtown and Laguna Canyon areas. The parking capacity in available public owned parking spaces is Summer:1977 Winter:1547. From actual traffic counts the Consultants summarize the off-street parking occupancy in downtown as 30-60% in winter and 80-100% in summer.  These results also do not justify a new permanent parking structure.

• Downtown On-Street Parking Occupancy
    o Summer Weekend/Weekday: 80% – 100%
    o Non-Summer Weekend/Weekday: 60% – 80%
• Downtown Off-Street Parking Occupancy
    o Summer Weekend/Weekday: 80% – 100%
    o Non-Summer Weekend/Weekday: 30% – 60%
• Canyon On-Street Parking Occupancy
    o Summer Weekend: 80% – 100%
    o Summer Weekday: 60% – 90%
    o Non-Summer Weekend: 60% – 80%
    o Non-Summer Weekday: 5% – 15%
• Canyon Off-Street Parking Occupancy
    o Summer Weekend: 70% – 90%
    o Summer Weekday: 40% – 70%

City Subcommittee

Notice the difference in conclusion from the Management Plan Subcommittee, in the parking and PTDMR report (Fehr and Peers) under Benefit to Residents page 39 says:   

Centralized parking creates more incentive for visitors to pay for parking for the convenience, rather than park for free in a residential area further away from their destination. We can reasonably predict that individuals are often willing to pay for this amenity based on the high occupancy trends at the Glenneyre Street parking structure and other public parking facilities.

Under Parking Capacity and Occupancy the report warns readers with this caption of the Village entrance. 

Locating available parking near a destination can be challenging ...... remain at near‐full occupancy throughout  the peak period. Once these areas are effectively full, remaining available parking  may be scattered and difficult to locate.  

The Subcommittee then proposes the solution to over-demand for parking is to add enough parking spaces to hold peak occupancy under 85%, even stacked parking if necessary for a "park once" approach to avoid motorist inconvenience (page 45).  

The conclusion from IBI was the existing built parking supply exceeded overall demand, asked why this conclusion was a contradiction Fehr and Peers had no comment (page 81).  The findings from RBF Consulting are also in contradiction to the Subcommittee recommendations. A winter 30-60% occupancy is already below the 85% occupancy Subcommittee target, however the RBF results were not compared. 

Two outcomes of the PTDMR recommendations were proposed.

(1) to reduce the impact of visitor and employee parking in residential neighborhoods and improve the quality of life for residents; and (2) to enhance mobility in the City’s commercial areas during peak periods to benefit both residents and visitors.

The first outcome to reduce parking occupancy under 85% will never be achieved today due to induced demand for parking, any land-use planner can tell you that.   The second outcome suffers from the same logic of car-culture; adding more car infrastructure to improve mobility simply exacerbate car traffic in our LB Village.

What is NOT in this fabricated report:   "Complete Streets Policy" does not appear anywhere in the 141-page PTDMR. The keywords in the short-list "induced demand, multi modal, mode share, transit" describing a balanced mobility plan to reduce parking demand  does not appear anywhere in the PTDMR.

 In 141-pages the PTDMR has completely ignored the amortized costs of financing, constructing, maintaining, operating and enforcing parking structures. The Subcommittee and City Staff dream of operating 1950 parking lots like a 2023 city  ATM Machine without analyzing life-time facility costs. DO THE MATH as Laguna Streets have done.  Check these parking meter rates for 11 structures and decide if you would park there or in a neighborhood for FREE!

Consultants report the recommendations they are retained to produce. In this case the clear disagreement between three consultants is revealing, the Parking Management Subcommittee has an agenda to sell parking.

-LS

* A new revision June 13 2023 replaces Jan 10 2023 report.

 

How to Move 1000 Laguna Beach Visitors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GET IT?

 

LBUSD Facility Master Plan SOW

On May 2 2023 the LB Unified School District revealed plans for a $120 Million replacement of facilities on four campuses, the allocation consists of $88 Million for the LBHS campus. The replacement consists of two parking garages designated  Lot-A and Lot-B on the Facility Master Plan SOW for May 23, 2023, the entire project is estimated to take 10-years to complete.

The project allocates roughly $15 Million for multi-story parking structures at Lot-A and $9 Million for Lot-B located in existing parking lots. Given similar project experience in Lagna Beach these costs may be considerably more. Given the details from the Facility Master Plan, an analysis of the proposed structures reveal the real cost of the development.

Project Assumptions:

Construction time 3-years,   Facility Life: 40-years,   Debt Financing: 30-years

Project Lifetime Debt Considerations:

Construction, Debt Service, Salvage, O&M, In-lieu Fees, Opportunity Cost 

Externalized Costs: VMT, Congestion, Emissions, EIR Review, In-lieu fees

Lot-A and Lot-B Design details:

Lot-A: number of spaces:  existing spaces -113, added - 19

Lot-B: number of spaces:  existing spaces -19, added - 103  

 

An economic analysis for the lifetime of the structure using a Equivalent Uniform Annualized Cost (EUAC) approach and the assumptions above give the following results. The calculations are a break-even case where amortized project costs are just covered by meter rates. 

 

The study does not include costs for  parking enforcement,  opportunity costs, environment factors (quakes, floods), depreciation and inflation. 

 

For each parking lot, the first chart shows the meter rate per hour charged per space at different prevailing interest rates. The meter rate is shown for two cases, one for spaces added and one for all the parking spaces in each lot A and B.  

The second chart shows the accumulated costs for each parking space if the space was rented by the month. It is shocking to realize the monthly cost of each parking space approaches cost of rent for a double occupancy flat in Laguna Beach.

-LS